For those having trouble with the rifle in The Long Dark: - Line up the front sight so its on the target, but you can still see the target (don't have the target on top of the front sight or so far below you can't see it) then wait for the rear sight to line up with the front sight, so that the 3 sight posts form a straight line ( - - - ), if you shoot at that moment the bullet will go like a lazer pointer to the very top center of the front post. - The rear sight and front sight line up at regular intervals (it mimics your character's breathing), once you figure out the pattern, you'll hit whatever you are looking at. -Crouching will reduce sway by a lot. To conserve ammo, you should always try to shoot crouched if possible, you'll hit more. - Now for the part that will really improve your accuracy: (if you play on PC, this may be different on console) Go to settings and find the mouse sensitivity. Turn off "mouse smoothing" or whatever it's called and then turn aiming sensitivity WAY down. You will notice your aiming is smoother and way more controllable (The difficulty of keeping your sights on targets will be reduced by a lot.) -Everyone likes different sensitivity settings so play around with it and find what works for you, but the lower the sensitivity, the more control you'll have. Be warned though, the aiming sensitivity ALSO applies to the revolver and bows, so make sure to test this out before you get charged by a hungry bear in heat and your character is turning slower then me after I threw my back out playing the banjo. -Practice learning the breathing patterns and tracking targets with your iron sights often. I trained following deer and rabbits with my iron sights at various distances and pulling the trigger when the 3 post lined up. (use an empty rifle for this, just say "BOOM" when you pull the trigger) -With a healthy surplus of ammo, practice on wolves. (play on lower difficulty settings to practice shooting, since rifle ammo is hard to come by on harder difficulties) -Keep your rifle clean at all times. I don't know if this actually effects accuracy or not, but have some self-respect and clean your rifle. Before you know it you'll be sniping pigeons at max range, even at lower rifle skill levels. Hope this helps someone.
For those having trouble with the rifle in The Long Dark:
- Line up the front sight so its on the target, but you can still see the target (don't have the target on top of the front sight or so far below you can't see it) then wait for the rear sight to line up with the front sight, so that the 3 sight posts form a straight line ( - - - ), if you shoot at that moment the bullet will go like a lazer pointer to the very top center of the front post.
- The rear sight and front sight line up at regular intervals (it mimics your character's breathing), once you figure out the pattern, you'll hit whatever you are looking at.
-Crouching will reduce sway by a lot. To conserve ammo, you should always try to shoot crouched if possible, you'll hit more.
- Now for the part that will really improve your accuracy: (if you play on PC, this may be different on console) Go to settings and find the mouse sensitivity. Turn off "mouse smoothing" or whatever it's called and then turn aiming sensitivity WAY down. You will notice your aiming is smoother and way more controllable (The difficulty of keeping your sights on targets will be reduced by a lot.)
-Everyone likes different sensitivity settings so play around with it and find what works for you, but the lower the sensitivity, the more control you'll have. Be warned though, the aiming sensitivity ALSO applies to the revolver and bows, so make sure to test this out before you get charged by a hungry bear in heat and your character is turning slower then me after I threw my back out playing the banjo.
-Practice learning the breathing patterns and tracking targets with your iron sights often. I trained following deer and rabbits with my iron sights at various distances and pulling the trigger when the 3 post lined up. (use an empty rifle for this, just say "BOOM" when you pull the trigger)
-With a healthy surplus of ammo, practice on wolves. (play on lower difficulty settings to practice shooting, since rifle ammo is hard to come by on harder difficulties)
-Keep your rifle clean at all times. I don't know if this actually effects accuracy or not, but have some self-respect and clean your rifle.
Before you know it you'll be sniping pigeons at max range, even at lower rifle skill levels.
Hope this helps someone.